Monday, November 24, 2014

Moore talks about the value of religious traditions

"‘The desire to possess and conform to a system of rules to govern behaviour seems to be an innate thing, and I believe it is a good thing. But having a rigid or constricting framework can be problematic. I follow the work of James Hillman in my work quite a lot and one of his very first things he did in branching out on his own was to write about ‘psychological polytheism’ — what he means by that is that there are a lot of things that go on in life and in the soul, and that they can contradict one another. And that is OK — that is the way that it should be. In a polytheistic or a polycentric realm you have rules but you also have absolute freedom, and the trick is to be able to affirm both and have them both coexist. That takes some work, and you have to stay at it every day.’"

In this interview, Moore also talks about dreams, symbols, staying with symptoms and a new age of religion. He says:

"‘The gist of my most recent book, A Religion of One’s Own was that we are going through a deep change in the way we think about religion in the world today. I think it is a very positive thing, and that even though we are losing established religion with clear belief systems — we are picking up something much more important. That is an awareness of the sacredness of life and the things that are of the world.’

"We were sent here for a purpose. We have a destiny, a job to do. If we’re doing that job, we find peace and joy even in the midst of difficulties.
How do you know what your mission is?

Thomas Moore guides you toward finding and fulfilling it, using the Gnostic story “Hymn of the Pearl,” in which a young man is sent into the world to obtain a precious pearl, as a metaphor for finding our mission."